Post From Publications
Share this post!
What does it take to truly shift power in community development? And who gets to decide?
Building stronger, healthier neighborhoods is the goal of community development, the process of helping communities grow and thrive. Yet often, the very systems meant to help can reinforce existing power imbalances. Who truly makes decisions, and whose voices are heard? These critical questions drove June’s Community Innovation for Racial Equity (CIRE) session, where the Build Healthy Places Network (BHPN) brought together cohort members to directly confront the persistent, often unspoken, force of power in funding, partnerships, and community investment.
Setting the Stage: Why Power?
Too often, community development initiatives replicate the same inequities they aim to dismantle. Decision-making happens in boardrooms far from the communities affected. Investments tend to prioritize speed over relationships. Real power, such as decision-making and agenda-setting, remains concentrated in institutions.
In this session, CIRE’s five BIPOC-led/allied Community Development Corporations (CDCs) explored how to challenge those dynamics and move from transactional to transformational relationships with mission-driven investors.
Opening Reflections: Whose Story Gets Told and How is it Told?
To spark the conversation, we began with a short but powerful video where Soledad O’Brien flips the traditional “deficit” narrative on its head. Through the lens of Glorious Menefee’s story, participants reflected on how narrative itself is a form of power:
Guest Speakers Adriane Harris & Jeana Dunlap
To deepen the conversation, BHPN welcomed two guest speakers, Adriane Harris and Jeana Dunlap, both leaders with extensive experience in equitable community development and systemic change. They didn’t just share theories; they brought real stories of community transformation and the hard truths about power imbalances that often hinder progress.
A Tale of Two Neighborhoods
Adriane Harris, Principal of HarCo Consulting, transported the cohort to North Nashville, a historically Black neighborhood home to four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and a rich legacy of culture and resistance. Just blocks away sits a thriving health and innovation district anchored by universities and hospitals.
The contrast? Stark. North Nashville is under-resourced, overlooked, and cut off–a product of deliberate disinvestment. Meanwhile, its neighbor thrives because of the benefit of institutional privilege.
Adriane’s story challenged the cohort, and in turn, all of us: “Where do projects truly stand on the path to community ownership, and what will it really take to achieve genuine community control?” Her insight revealed a critical gap: despite the significance of the project, community representatives were absent from key decision-making—a reality she was determined to change.
Adriane’s example wasn’t just a case study; it was a rallying cry to redefine success in development to truly center and empower community voices in shaping their own future.
The Cost of Exclusion
Jeana Dunlap, founder of META Agency and longtime advocate for economic justice, brought a personal example of what happens when community voice is included on paper but excluded in practice.
As a member of the West End Opportunity Partnership board in Louisville, Jeana shared how a seemingly diverse leadership group ultimately upheld the status quo. The result? Thirteen small businesses are at risk of being displaced from the NIA Center, a long-standing economic hub, to make room for transitional housing.
Jeana’s account laid bare the profound emotional and economic toll of unchecked power, underscoring the urgent need for models where equity is not a mere gesture, but a fundamental, structural commitment.
From Concept to Action: Tools for Power Shifting
The session didn’t stop at stories. Adriane and Jeana offered the cohort practical frameworks that reframe how we think about power and equity.
Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership
Featured on page seven of BHPN’s Community-Driven Data and Evaluation Strategies to Transform Power and Place, this spectrum outlines a continuum—from ignoring communities and merely informing them, to consulting, involving, and collaborating with them—ultimately deferring to community leadership to shift power toward those most affected by decisions.
Ask yourself: Are you inviting input, or inviting ownership?
Principles for Equitable Investment
Adapted from Elevating Health Equity Through Parks and Recreation, these guiding principles offer more than just direction—they act as a compass for advancing equity in community investment. Calling on us to reckon with history, confront bias, question dominant norms, transform systems, and stay accountable, they remind us that equity isn’t an add-on, it requires ongoing personal and structural change.
Together, these tools provide a pathway from awareness to action, reminding us that equity is more than just theory, but is a reflection of the choices we make every day.
Join the Movement to Shift Power
Shifting power is not a checklist, it’s a journey. And it doesn’t happen in isolation. Through CIRE, BHPN is supporting a national community of BIPOC-led and allied organizations to learn together, share tools, and hold each other accountable.
Stay connected with BHPN:
Sign up for our newsletter to receive curated stories, resources, and learning opportunities. Follow us on LinkedIn to stay in conversation with our team and partners.
Reflect & Act: What’s Your Role in Shifting Power?
Take a moment to consider these questions and reflect on your role in shifting power dynamics within your own work and organization: